Teenaged girl gangraped in Mumbai, 3 held

Mumbai: A 14-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by four persons in Dharavi area here after she left home to meet a person whom she had befriended on a social networking site, police said today.

Three of the accused have been arrested while one is absconding, they said.

The girl, a resident of suburban Andheri and studying in class VIII, had an argument with her grandmother on May 24 and in a fit of rage she left home to go to Jammu and Kashmir to meet a person whom she befriended on Facebook, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mahesh Patil said.

“When she reached Kurla, two accused Umesh Kawade, 22, and Dinesh Kumar Yadav, 20, who is hearing and speech impaired, spotted her in need and assured her to provide ticket and other expenses to go to Jammu and Kashmir. Both brought her to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and then pretended that there was no ticket available for the day, so she will have to stay at their home in Dharavi for the night,” he said.

“The accused then brought her to a leather factory in Dharavi and forced her to consume liquor before raping her. Later, they phoned two other friends – Salman Khan, 20, and Rajkumar Singh, 20, who also came and raped the girl,” he said.

When Umesh brought the girl to a hotel later in the night to have food, an alert citizen, Zamir Khan, noticed that the girl was weeping. Sensing something amiss, he confronted Umesh and slapped him.

Umesh ran from there and Zamir later united the girl with her family, Patil said.

“In the meantime, the girl’s family had registered a missing complaint with MIDC police station. Initially, the girl did not reveal that she was raped. But, later she informed her family that she was raped by four men, including Umesh,” he said.

Subsequently, her family lodged a rape complaint, following which three of the accused – Dinesh, Salman and Rajkumar – were nabbed yesterday while Umesh is still absconding, Patil said.

The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the IPC and POCSO Act.

The three arrested men, all residents of Dharavi, would be produced in a court later today, police added.